Roland Winbeckler's French Vanilla Sour Cream Cake...help

Recipe calls for 2 1/2 cups of sifted flour. Does anyone know if he means cake flour or AP flour? Has anyone made this and what did you use? I weigh my ingredients but am confused what weight to use. One cup of sifted flour will obviously weigh less than one cup of unsifted flour. I just used my last cake flour making this cake for my friend's 50th birthday tomorrow and as it was baking, saw the oil still in the measuring cup sitting on the counter. Can't run to store as I'm waiting for septic company to get here...you don't want to know what I've been through this morning with that!

didn't i read on a forum here that some of TLC's posted recipes were incomplete at best? it is good to know that this recipe can be vouched for . i am always looking for a good vanilla cake that isn't boring.

I just got back from my friend's birthday party. Although the cake tasted good, for the first time since I converted to scratch baking, my cake was like cornbread. Always wondered why people described cakes that way...now I know. I sifted and then measured the cake flour, but unfortunately thought I could make it better by changing the method, i.e. creaming butter and sugar first, alternating dry ingredients, instead of just following directions and dumping it in together.

Anyway, lesson learned. My first gumpaste flowers turned out pretty good though. She loved the cake and that's all that counts (at least that's what I keep telling myself.

Hi, The recipe calls for 1 small package dry instant vanilla pudding mix how much is this in quantity. I made this cake yesterday and I used a 100 gms packet of the pudding mix. The cake batter was very thick. and the texture of the cake was not good. Please help. Thanks

Hi, The recipe calls for 1 small package dry instant vanilla pudding mix how much is this in quantity. I made this cake yesterday and I used a 100 gms packet of the pudding mix. The cake batter was very thick. and the texture of the cake was not good. Please help. Thanks

You used the same "small" packet of pudding mix as is sold in the US. They run 85-110 grams for various brands.

You probably didn't sift your flour before measuring it (see above comments). If you see that your batter is **that** thick when you use pudding mix, then just add another 50mL of water and gently mix it in.

Double acting baking powder is a mixture of baking soda and some acid that dissolves slowly. The acid ingredients in the batter cause the "first" rising action as soon as liquid is added. The heat of the oven releases the acid from the powder and causes the "second" action.

Legal acids in North America are potassium acid tartrate (cream of tartar) and acid calcium phosphate. I don't know what is permitted elsewhere, but please do NOT use a baking powder with aluminum phosphate--it's not good for your health.

You can mix your own baking powder from one volume of soda (sodium bicarbonate) and two volumes of cream of tartar and one volume of corn starch. This should be sifted together, and then stored in a tightly closed glass jar.

Double-acting baking powder has two activations. First when the liquid hits it and again when it heats up. This way you can let your batter stand for a while before baking. Single-acting baking powder only has the initial activation so you must bake your batter off immediately after baking. Most baking powder is double-acting nowadays.